Covering nearly one-third of the Earth’s surface, the Pacific Ocean basin is one of the most important regions of the world in terms of environmental studies. The tropical Pacific is considered by meteorologists to be the “heat engine” of the world’s ocean-atmosphere system. It is also the region of initiation of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation phenomenon, which affects weather patterns around the globe. Unfortunately, due to geographical and political/economic considerations, the islands of the Pacific remain sparsely instrumented compared to continental regions of the world. Many of the developed countries, which had long supported weather and climate monitoring in the Pacific, have been reducing the level of their support. Across the globe, many surface networks are receiving less and less monetary support, while funds are being put into satellite remote sensing of the planet. However, verification and validation of remotely sensed environmental parameters require surface measurements at a variety of spatial and temporal scales. In addition, surface observing networks are necessary to predict and manage water quantity and quality on both regional and local levels.

In cooperation with the Weather Service Directors from two Pacific island nations, cooperative climate observer networks are being proposed and implemented in these countries, modeled after the U.S. Cooperative Observers Network coordinated and overseen by the U.S. National Weather Service (Australia also has a cooperative observers network, similar to that in the U.S.). Seed funds from the University of Oklahoma, NOAA’s Office of Global Programs and the U.S. GCOS (Global Climate Observing System) Program are helping to establish these networks in the countries of Niue and Vanuatu.

Under this program, the island of Niue has expanded from 2 weather observation sites just 6 years ago, to 9 sites at the present time. The country of Vanuatu is made up of approximately 80 islands, with a total land area of 12,336 square kilometers. Currently, daily meteorological measurements are made at only 7 sites in the islands. Under this program, plans are to increase this by approximately 100 sites. Initial measurements would be of rainfall only.

There are many challenges in implementing a sustainable cooperative observer program in the developing tropical Pacific island nations. One of the goals of NOAA’s Climate Change and Detection program is to develop and evaluate data sets to ensure the availability of critical meteorological data to the international scientific community. The development and success of a cooperative observers’ network in Niue and Vanuatu will demonstrate the likelihood that similar networks across the Pacific would be a low-cost method of enhancing climate observations. This paper will present the findings of the program to date, including difficulties and successes in implementation and assurance of data quality. Over the next 6 months, it is expected that collaboration with the RANET-Pacific project will enhance both data quality and quantity from the islands.